Over a burger before my solo XC, my instructor Matt (AKA "I5") informed me that he landed a job and his last day would be May 27. Naturally I was extremely happy for him - while at the same time sad in a selfish way that I'd be losing "my" instructor. Turns out he will be moving up to Red Deer, Alberta (hey I just flew there yesterday) to work for an outfit that flies into clouds and "sprays" them to prevent hail. Weird job but he's pretty excited about making 3x what he makes as an instructor and getting to fly a King Air 90.
Anyhow, since I'll be in Vegas May 16-21 and I5 is booked solid the next week - it looks like my regular Thursday booking this evening May 13th will be my last with him. We flipped through my PTR (pilot training record - or for now my log book) to see how many flights we've done together. To be honest I don't remember how many - but I do know that my first flight with him was September 3, 2008. That day we did (for the first time) slips and forced approaches and he helped me overcome my "lean-a-phobia". Tonight was the 50th entry in my log book. I'm fairly certain that 40 of those flights were with I5. It will be tough to see him go but this is how things go with those instructors who are desperately looking to move up the food chain.
The good news is that before the flight he said he wanted to review "what was left" for me. He said that this evening we would focus on forced approaches, stalls, and slow flight since those have traditionally been my weaker areas. Then he said that "regardless of how I perform" he would recommend me for my "mock flight test" which identifies areas you need to improve upon - solo. After that and 1-3 flights solo to work on whatever I want I'd get a recommendation for my flight test. Guess I was closer than I thought. Although the "Syllabus" at the club says you need to go on 2 solo cross countries, transport Canada only requires you to fly 5 hours of solo cross country time which includes a flight of more than 150nm with 2 full stops at an airport other than the departure or arrival airport. I've already got that under my belt. I also meet all of the other "minimum hours" criteria with the exception of instruments which still require another 1.2 hours. I guess I was closer than I thought.
On to the flight. It was hot, sunny, and windy today. Perfect weather for crazy thermal bumps in the foothills of the Rockies (I'm convinced now that in terms of winds and bumps - Calgary is the WORST place to fly in the world, but hey! The scenery is worth it). At about 4pm some TCUs and a broken layer formed. It rained for about 30 minutes and then the clouds went from broken (ish) to scattered (ish) yet still kept the sun in check. The temps cooled back down to about 7C and the winds at the surface and aloft were light and variable - perfect conditions for a lovely evening flight.
We decided to head to the south this time because I had only been down there once and it was under the hood. He sat quietly and just let me fly, communicate, and navigate. I somehow figured out the landmarks for all of the terrain and managed to stay away from the "soaring" area that was active. We continued south - chatting, flying, navigating, and confirming our location. Before we knew it we were WAY south and then headed east. We circled a few areas to confirm our position and ended up near High River, Alberta.
At this point I5 asked "do you want to land at High River?". "yep - let's go for it". I pulled out the CFS and we made everything work. I landed on a runway that was going completely uphill (or so it seemed to a newbie like me). We went to the ramp and got out. The airport was deserted - of people. We checked out a dozen aircraft sitting on the ramp including one super cool crop duster with a massive rotary engine. It looked as if it had a tiny prop below the body. My assumption is that it worked like a Ram Air Turbine except that it provided hydraulic power for the stuff the farmer is spraying.
We ended up hanging out there so long that it was soon getting dark. I5 talked about the reciprocal route back until I mentioned "Why not just head north along the highway and go through the city. He quickly countered with "we can't do a city tour without prior authorization from terminal". Obviously he forgot that I carry by blackberry with me. I still had the number to Calgary terminal (from my last city tour).
Five minutes later we were rolling on runway 06 (headed up hill) and shortly followed Highway 2 towards Calgary. Downtown was AMAZING at dusk. In fact it was FAR easier to see landmarks in the dusk than during the day. We continued over the city and headed back for home base. Tower had to keep us up at 5500 (1500AGL) for a straight in (landing west and not his airspace) so I got to perform a great forward slip almost down to the threshold.
After taxiing back I5 told me that may have been the best flight he's had in over a year with a student. He mentioned that it reminded him why he likes to fly.
After we completed the paperwork I took I5 for a beer at a local pub and bought him a steak sandwich to boot ;)
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Solo Cross Country
The stars fell into alignment today and I finally had a chance to fly my first solo Cross Country. I honestly can not remember the last time I flew solo. I'm not even sure it was in 2010 (I just looked and it was January 2010).
Since the dual XC back at the start of April I've managed to get an hour of sim time in to do partial panel work, and two dual flights with I5.
I literally had the day off so took advantage of it. I was at the club by 1030 and after Q&A with I5 I started on the planning. The planning took a long time. A really really really long time. Either it is a LOT of work, I'm terribly slow at it, or a sad combination of both.
For a while I thought the flight gods were conspiring against me. The diamond (yes "the" - FIFA is no more and now GMTZ is out for a few weeks with a cracked canopy) was late getting out of maintenance (a 50 hour). Then when it finally did there were guys doing some sort of work to the hangar doors which couldn't be opened.
Ok - cut to the chase. I flew the XC and things went great. I knew where I was, the planning all came together, had no issues with procedures (US equivalent of Class C, Class B transition, FSS "controlled" airport, and an uncontrolled airport), had the aircraft under control and above all managed to keep everything organized. The final hit on the Hobbs time was 3.0 hours. The bastards forecast the winds aloft as 9900 but they were full of it! It was gusty up there and things were made more fun by the "summer bumps". It wasn't like the last flight where I was ready to puke, In fact I didn't feel the bumps at all - maybe I was so concerned with keeping my heading and altitude. Damn those ridiculous gyroscopes! Can't they just keep in line with the compass!
A few key highlights:
- Using only 2000 feet to land and roll out at CYQF. I came in high and fast and forgot about to anticipate the extra float with 160 lbs missing from the aircraft. (Oh - I did soft field landing procedure and just let her roll until I exited at about 2000 feet).
- Getting a bit lost on the second leg but verifying my location and proving it over and over by using a combination of water, highways, towers, and a gas plant.
- Nailing the uncontrolled field procedure (cross midfield at 1500' to check the windsock, sweet procedure turn to join midfield downwind).
- Cross wind landing at CEN3.
- Holding my own in Class B airspace with a busy departure controller speaking with heavies and me.
- Getting a super cool "direct the tower and a midfield downwind" with weird altitude and speed restrictions to help a REALLY busy tower controller get his sequencing right.
- Holding a great approach speed and angle so that I could flare where I wanted to for a somewhat controlled touchdown. Again making the taxiway 2000' down the runway with the nose wheel still somewhat off the ground for most of it.
- Parking on the ramp at CEN3 and getting out to stretch - remembering Keith Smith's blog from his first solo XC about "trying to look as cool as possible".
This was all good except there was NO ONE at the airport (tiny field). The problem with this was that I had to pee pretty badly after downing over a liter of water for the first two legs. Having been unable to figure it out and seeing no signs of life I just walked to the grass and whipped it out to drain. Of course this was immediately followed by a lady coming out of some building (which I was sure was condemned) taking a look at me from a few thousand feet away (obvious what I was doing) and then just continuing on with her business. I stopped, shook, zipped, and ran back to the safety of C-GFFC.
At this point - all I can really think about is that the flight truly was a climax of all the skills I have learned to date in my flight training. I felt comfortable making every decision that was made today - even the ones that weren't entirely obvious and required some analytical skills, risk assessment, and above all common sense.
Tomorrow night I5 and I are taking a Skyhawk out for some instrument work and "familiarity" with the 172.
Since the dual XC back at the start of April I've managed to get an hour of sim time in to do partial panel work, and two dual flights with I5.
I literally had the day off so took advantage of it. I was at the club by 1030 and after Q&A with I5 I started on the planning. The planning took a long time. A really really really long time. Either it is a LOT of work, I'm terribly slow at it, or a sad combination of both.
For a while I thought the flight gods were conspiring against me. The diamond (yes "the" - FIFA is no more and now GMTZ is out for a few weeks with a cracked canopy) was late getting out of maintenance (a 50 hour). Then when it finally did there were guys doing some sort of work to the hangar doors which couldn't be opened.
Ok - cut to the chase. I flew the XC and things went great. I knew where I was, the planning all came together, had no issues with procedures (US equivalent of Class C, Class B transition, FSS "controlled" airport, and an uncontrolled airport), had the aircraft under control and above all managed to keep everything organized. The final hit on the Hobbs time was 3.0 hours. The bastards forecast the winds aloft as 9900 but they were full of it! It was gusty up there and things were made more fun by the "summer bumps". It wasn't like the last flight where I was ready to puke, In fact I didn't feel the bumps at all - maybe I was so concerned with keeping my heading and altitude. Damn those ridiculous gyroscopes! Can't they just keep in line with the compass!
A few key highlights:
- Using only 2000 feet to land and roll out at CYQF. I came in high and fast and forgot about to anticipate the extra float with 160 lbs missing from the aircraft. (Oh - I did soft field landing procedure and just let her roll until I exited at about 2000 feet).
- Getting a bit lost on the second leg but verifying my location and proving it over and over by using a combination of water, highways, towers, and a gas plant.
- Nailing the uncontrolled field procedure (cross midfield at 1500' to check the windsock, sweet procedure turn to join midfield downwind).
- Cross wind landing at CEN3.
- Holding my own in Class B airspace with a busy departure controller speaking with heavies and me.
- Getting a super cool "direct the tower and a midfield downwind" with weird altitude and speed restrictions to help a REALLY busy tower controller get his sequencing right.
- Holding a great approach speed and angle so that I could flare where I wanted to for a somewhat controlled touchdown. Again making the taxiway 2000' down the runway with the nose wheel still somewhat off the ground for most of it.
- Parking on the ramp at CEN3 and getting out to stretch - remembering Keith Smith's blog from his first solo XC about "trying to look as cool as possible".
This was all good except there was NO ONE at the airport (tiny field). The problem with this was that I had to pee pretty badly after downing over a liter of water for the first two legs. Having been unable to figure it out and seeing no signs of life I just walked to the grass and whipped it out to drain. Of course this was immediately followed by a lady coming out of some building (which I was sure was condemned) taking a look at me from a few thousand feet away (obvious what I was doing) and then just continuing on with her business. I stopped, shook, zipped, and ran back to the safety of C-GFFC.
At this point - all I can really think about is that the flight truly was a climax of all the skills I have learned to date in my flight training. I felt comfortable making every decision that was made today - even the ones that weren't entirely obvious and required some analytical skills, risk assessment, and above all common sense.
Tomorrow night I5 and I are taking a Skyhawk out for some instrument work and "familiarity" with the 172.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
FIFA
Flying weather has been brutal out here. In fact it is SNOWING here right now. This has caused many planned flights to be scrapped. Such is the life. On the other hand the days are long enough now to fly in the evenings.
After a week or so of thinking about the solo cross country flight I realized that while the experience of the cross country was excellent - the experience I had with the instructor (not my usual) was anything but excellent. It was really a discussion I had with my friend Keith that helped me understand this, and it was validated by I5 the next time we flew.
I've been working on the instrument portion of the syllabus - partly due to the weather and also partly due to the requirement of flying every 14 days or I lose my solo currency. So If I'm flying with my instructor it may as well take care of the instrument AND my currency. So far it has gone very well. X-Plane has turned out to be very good for simulating some of the failures and practice in standard rate turns. On Mr. Smith's suggestion I will in fact be taking a flight in one of our IFR rated aircraft the next time we have a booking that is canceled due to IMC - so that I can experience it for real.
The other day we planned on some instrument work but it was far too windy and bumpy. We also wanted to stay close to the field due to TCUs in bound. We planned on flying the pattern but when we called ground up were told they already had too many planes in the circuit. A quick phone call to Calgary Terminal and we were issued a squawk code for a city tour.
This was monumental for me because I had always wanted to fly over the city but had never had the chance. It was well worth the wait. When we checked in with the approach controller he gave me "maintain 5000, oh you said you were at 5500 umm you can have 5 or 5500 if you want, if it is a problem I'll let you know". I took advantage by responding with "OK, we'll take a block between five and fifty five hundred". I5 loved that.
We were essentially able to do whatever we wanted as long as we stayed west and south of the international airport (which is conveniently in the NE corner of the city. I followed the rivers - identified shopping centers, major streets, our reservoir, interchanges, the LRT, major parks, even stores like IKEA were easily spotted from the air. Circling back I did the old "fly over your house" thing but didn't do any buzzing of course. It was a bit weird because there are two communications towers near my home and I was quite concerned with them.
Following this I flew to my brother in laws house. Under average traffic conditions this drive would normally take 40-45 minutes. I think I made it there in about 5. The final fun as flying over downtown. It was super cool and something I really want to do again.
I left the airport at about 510pm that day. It was pretty busy in the club when I came in and when I left. There were a number of guys who had their solo cross country's canceled and were trying to get signed out to fly in the circuit. The next morning while taking out the garbage my neighbor came running over and said "thank god you are all right". The look on my face apparently said "What the heck are you talking about?". She told me about a crash at the airport the following evening and she knew I had been flying.
I ran inside and googled to find out that a student pilot flying solo had crashed just off the runway. Apparently they were doing stop and go's in a diamond and on one of the go's lost control, clipped a wing, went inverted and crashed in a field a few hundred feet west of the runway. The last report I had said the pilot was in critical condition but improving. It felt weird to hear that an accident had happened when I was there - hey it could have even been me in there.
When I learned it was a diamond, I found a photo of the wreckage and could easily make out the callsign "C-FIFA" on the tail of the aircraft. I stopped to think about how much of a connection I felt with the aircraft themselves. I knew small things about each of them that made them unique. Then things got a bit weirder....
Later in the day I googled "Springbank accident" and found a thread at AVCanada discussing the incident. At first they didn't know much then as details emerged they were posting. Soon they discovered that the callsign was C-FIFA and the aircraft was a DA20C1 purchased from Diamond 3 years earlier. A few posts down someone said that they had visited CYBW in September and took a few photos of C-FIFA. I actually felt some joy in my heart as I looked at the photo of FIFA taxiing along. Then I did a double take. OMFG! That is ME IN THE COCKPIT.
Total weirdness. To make a long story short I sent an email to the author asking if he would provide digital proofs of the photo so I could hang it on my wall with my others (first flight, first solo, cross country, and a few others). I mentioned this to a friend of mine (BP) and we pondered if it was weird to hang a photo of myself in an aircraft that no longer existed and he came up with a gem about "remembering the lesson to be learned every time I see it". This was good advice - providing we learn what the issue was.
EDIT: The pilot made a full recovery and plans to fly again once he gets medical clearance. The photographer sent me original digital copies of the photo and it now hangs proudly on the wall of my office.
After a week or so of thinking about the solo cross country flight I realized that while the experience of the cross country was excellent - the experience I had with the instructor (not my usual) was anything but excellent. It was really a discussion I had with my friend Keith that helped me understand this, and it was validated by I5 the next time we flew.
I've been working on the instrument portion of the syllabus - partly due to the weather and also partly due to the requirement of flying every 14 days or I lose my solo currency. So If I'm flying with my instructor it may as well take care of the instrument AND my currency. So far it has gone very well. X-Plane has turned out to be very good for simulating some of the failures and practice in standard rate turns. On Mr. Smith's suggestion I will in fact be taking a flight in one of our IFR rated aircraft the next time we have a booking that is canceled due to IMC - so that I can experience it for real.
The other day we planned on some instrument work but it was far too windy and bumpy. We also wanted to stay close to the field due to TCUs in bound. We planned on flying the pattern but when we called ground up were told they already had too many planes in the circuit. A quick phone call to Calgary Terminal and we were issued a squawk code for a city tour.
This was monumental for me because I had always wanted to fly over the city but had never had the chance. It was well worth the wait. When we checked in with the approach controller he gave me "maintain 5000, oh you said you were at 5500 umm you can have 5 or 5500 if you want, if it is a problem I'll let you know". I took advantage by responding with "OK, we'll take a block between five and fifty five hundred". I5 loved that.
We were essentially able to do whatever we wanted as long as we stayed west and south of the international airport (which is conveniently in the NE corner of the city. I followed the rivers - identified shopping centers, major streets, our reservoir, interchanges, the LRT, major parks, even stores like IKEA were easily spotted from the air. Circling back I did the old "fly over your house" thing but didn't do any buzzing of course. It was a bit weird because there are two communications towers near my home and I was quite concerned with them.
Following this I flew to my brother in laws house. Under average traffic conditions this drive would normally take 40-45 minutes. I think I made it there in about 5. The final fun as flying over downtown. It was super cool and something I really want to do again.
I left the airport at about 510pm that day. It was pretty busy in the club when I came in and when I left. There were a number of guys who had their solo cross country's canceled and were trying to get signed out to fly in the circuit. The next morning while taking out the garbage my neighbor came running over and said "thank god you are all right". The look on my face apparently said "What the heck are you talking about?". She told me about a crash at the airport the following evening and she knew I had been flying.
I ran inside and googled to find out that a student pilot flying solo had crashed just off the runway. Apparently they were doing stop and go's in a diamond and on one of the go's lost control, clipped a wing, went inverted and crashed in a field a few hundred feet west of the runway. The last report I had said the pilot was in critical condition but improving. It felt weird to hear that an accident had happened when I was there - hey it could have even been me in there.
When I learned it was a diamond, I found a photo of the wreckage and could easily make out the callsign "C-FIFA" on the tail of the aircraft. I stopped to think about how much of a connection I felt with the aircraft themselves. I knew small things about each of them that made them unique. Then things got a bit weirder....
Later in the day I googled "Springbank accident" and found a thread at AVCanada discussing the incident. At first they didn't know much then as details emerged they were posting. Soon they discovered that the callsign was C-FIFA and the aircraft was a DA20C1 purchased from Diamond 3 years earlier. A few posts down someone said that they had visited CYBW in September and took a few photos of C-FIFA. I actually felt some joy in my heart as I looked at the photo of FIFA taxiing along. Then I did a double take. OMFG! That is ME IN THE COCKPIT.
Total weirdness. To make a long story short I sent an email to the author asking if he would provide digital proofs of the photo so I could hang it on my wall with my others (first flight, first solo, cross country, and a few others). I mentioned this to a friend of mine (BP) and we pondered if it was weird to hang a photo of myself in an aircraft that no longer existed and he came up with a gem about "remembering the lesson to be learned every time I see it". This was good advice - providing we learn what the issue was.
EDIT: The pilot made a full recovery and plans to fly again once he gets medical clearance. The photographer sent me original digital copies of the photo and it now hangs proudly on the wall of my office.
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